Kaitlyn O'Connor (20 page)

“Lau-ren,” Kael volunteered.

Karen whipped a look at him and then stared at Loren in wide eyed horror, looking as if she might burst into tears any moment. “Oh…my…god! We are
so
fucked!”

Loren clamped a hand over her mouth and gave her a warning look. “Thankfully the computer is set up in Unduleze and that
‟
s the language the trader implanted, or whatever, in us. I just wish I
‟
d realized before I got up here that it would only be a matter of communicating with the computer. I might not have been so scared.” She considered that. “Not as scared.”

“Trader dead,” Dakaar announced flatly.

Loren glanced at him and then looked around at the faces of everyone who
‟
d managed to make it on board. They all looked like they
‟
d been through hell and back, bore the signs of their battle to break free of Lecur
‟
s prison and the fight they
‟
d waged every step of the way to get to the ship. They were spattered and streaked with blood and the white powder that had rained down on them from the crumbling walls, their hair wild, battered, bruised, cut and burned, and pale and shaken from their ordeal besides that. She counted seven more Hirachi, none of whom she
‟
d actually met, and three aliens she knew were gladiators that definitely weren
‟
t Hirachi.

Like all of the other aliens that had inhabited Lecur
‟
s privately owned hell, they were humanoid, but although their features were similar to humans—and the Hirachi—they would never be mistaken for a human. It was the „demon
‟
aliens that had totally freaked her out!

Actually, she didn
‟
t know if it was the same ones or not. She hadn
‟
t looked at them closely enough to recognize them, but it was definitely she same species!

They were tall, but closer to a very tall human in height than the Hirachi—with almost freakishly broad shoulders and barrel chests that tapered to narrow hips, their musculature so pronounced it looked ropy beneath their rough looking, sunburn red skin. They had black horns 88

that sprouted from their temples and curled like ram
‟
s horns, forming a frame for their pointy ears.

The Hirachi had nothing on them for scary looking!

Shara was clinging to one of the Hirachi. She, too, was humanoid and yet distinctly alien with her bluish-green skin and hair, snub nose, and cat-like eyes.

Loren turned and glanced at Karen and then looked at Kael helplessly.

He studied her for a long moment and lifted his head to focus on the others, switching to his native language. “We need to secure the ship—search it from top to bottom to see what is here that might be useful—food, water, bedding, clothes—medicines. We
‟
ll divide into groups to cover everything more quickly and take it one level at the time, starting at the one just below this.” He returned his attention to Lau-ren. “Womans stay here. Safe here.”

89

Loren gaped at Kael in dismay. In the back of her mind, she knew he was right—and not just about her being safer. She needed to stay near the ship
‟
s controls, but all of her sense of safety was wrapped up in Kael at the moment and, like a child that only felt brave when their parent was holding their hand, she didn
‟
t want to let him out of her sight. She couldn
‟
t tell him that, though! He expected her to be brave and strong—like the Hirachi women! But she wasn
‟
t! She was a weakling and a coward. Bracing herself to pretend that wasn
‟
t true to keep from diminishing herself further in his eyes, she cast around for an excuse to stick to him as if she
‟
d been plastered to him. “But…I
‟
m freezing in this…thing! I thought I
‟
d go with you—just to find something to put on!”

Kael surveyed her and she bit her lip, realizing abruptly that nobody had anything on to speak of. The men were wearing nothing but the loincloths that covered their genitals and Karen and Shara were both dressed in the tissue togas just like her own—which was hanging off of them in tatters from their own assaults.

“Alright, we
‟
ll stay here and try to figure out how to set a course…uh…somewhere.”

“Stay here now. Settle where when figure everyting out.” Kael turned and looked at Dakaar and Balen. “Dakaar stay. Guard….” He glanced at Karen and Shara and left it at that. “Udders, we go down. Next level split, search, come back to liff. Go down next level.”

They
‟
d already reached the lift when a thought abruptly struck Loren. “Hey! I had my suitcase with me when I got here. If you see it…?”

She could tell from the look on his face that Kael didn
‟
t have a clue of what she was talking about. “It
‟
s brown…uh…fake leather. Looks about like your loincloth thingy.” She drew the size and shape with her hands in the air.

Kael sent her a skeptical look, but he nodded.

Karen was studying her speculatively when she turned to her again. “You want to tell me how you got here with a suitcase?”

Loren immediately felt embarrassment flood her at the memory. “Long story,” she muttered dismissively.

Karen waved her hands to encompass the ship. “I have a bad feeling we
‟
re going to have a lot of time on our hands.”

None
of them needed a reminder that they were a long ways from being out of the woods and her lips tightened. “I told you pretty much the whole story when we first taken,” she reminded her.

“Except about the suitcase.”

Loren felt her face reddening. She uttered a huff of irritation. “They told me they were sending me to study alien technology—with the aliens. I didn
‟
t actually volunteer, but I was scared to say no and…. You know everything else,” she said tightly, unable to meet Karen
‟
s 90

gaze.

“No long story,” Shara commented.

Loren blinked at her. “It
‟
s a figure…. Never mind!”

“So…you volunteered?” Karen pursued.

“I told you I didn
‟
t!” Loren said irritably. “They tricked me. Stupid I know, but I was too focused on being relieved that they didn
‟
t, apparently, mean to snuff me to keep me quiet. I didn
‟
t
know
what they were doing, or trading, to get the technology. I didn
‟
t even
suspect
what they were doing. I just suspected that they were trading for it.”

She glanced toward Dakaar, who
‟
d taken up a position near the door of the lift. “We
‟
ve got a problem.”

Karen
‟
s lips tightened. “We have a lot of problems.”

“The one I
‟
m referring to is the fact that we have four different species on this ship and I
‟
m assuming all from different worlds.” She looked at Shara questioningly.

“Only one from
Mizukera,”
Shara confirmed. “My mans from Ach.”

Loren blinked at her, recalling Shara had told them she
‟
d had a man on her home world. It didn
‟
t seem like the time to question the shift in her allegiance, however. She exchanged a long look with Karen. Karen chewed her lip, abruptly looking distraught at the question in Loren
‟
s eyes. “We have to decide now?”

Loren shook her head. “The truth is that I don
‟
t know if we can find our way back to Earth—or any of the worlds anyone here is from, but we need to decide where we
‟
re going. I
‟
m assuming, since the trader was at the space station so long, that he was there to refuel and restock, but I don
‟
t know that and we can
‟
t ask him now. We might be lucky just to get to a livable planet.”

“Why don
‟
t we just figure out where we
can
go…if we can do that much?” Karen suggested. “Kael said we
‟
d settle where we were going later.”

“I don
‟
t have a clue of how to navigate space,” Loren admitted, following Karen to the console.

Karen frowned. “This is the trader
‟
s ship, right?”

“Unless he was running into somebody else
‟
s ship when we caught him.”

“Don
‟
t even go there! Let
‟
s assume it is. The computer would have recorded the places he stopped, right?”

“I think we can assume that.” She hesitated. “We were in those pods a long time, Karen. I don
‟
t know how long, but my hair was a
lot
longer when I came out than when I went in. There might not be enough fuel or food to get back even if you
‟
re right and the computer has that in its memory, and you probably are if this is the trader
‟
s ship.” She couldn
‟
t quite interpret what was going through Karen
‟
s mind from her expression.

“We couldn
‟
t take the Hirachi…any of the aliens back to Earth anyway. You know that. I know that. Everyone would totally freak out and there
‟
s no telling what might happen.”

“I know,” Loren agreed.

“No go my world,” Shara said. “My people no like aliens. Dey freak, too.”

Loren nodded, but it helped her feelings a little to know humans weren
‟
t the only ones that would be totally hostile to the prospect of being „invaded
‟
by another species. “Computer, pull 91

up a map showing the route the ship has taken over the past six months.”

“Calculate six months according to what star system?”

Loren glanced at Karen in dismay. “Try star date,” Karen suggested.

“That wouldn
‟
t be any help!” Loren snapped. “We aren
‟
t on the damned Enterprise! I don
‟
t know anything about time in space!”

“Computer,” Karen said, “pull up a map showing the last six ports where this ship docked.”

“Great idea!” Loren exclaimed, looking up the display hopefully. Her smile fell as she stared at the line that zigzagged across a field of pure black with tiny specks of light.

“Well fuck!” Karen muttered, expressing her own sentiments.

She chewed her lower lip, thinking. “Computer, give us a close up of the last port this ship stopped at before it reached the space station.” She narrowed her eyes when the computer produced the image, studying it carefully. “Does that look familiar to either of you?”

Karen and Shara both moved closer and studied it. “Holy shit! It
‟
s got three suns! Look!

There
‟
s two here in the middle and this one way out here.”

“Are you
serious
?” Loren demanded, squinting at the image. “This is a star system, computer?”

“Affirmative. System HM412.”

“That
‟
s fucking helpful!” Karen muttered.

Loren glanced toward Dakaar. “Does Ach have three suns?”

He stared at her as if she was delusional. “Hab two.”

“What about the red skinned guys? You know anything about where they
‟
re from?”

He shook his head.

“Computer, show us the systems in reverse—one by one—slowly. Starting at the space station, go back to each port in reverse order of stops.”

The next system that flashed on the screen had only one sun, but even though Loren
‟
s heart leapt with excitement, she saw immediately that the single star was a red star. “Not the right color for our star,” she murmured in disappointment.

“Not enough planets either. I don
‟
t see but four.”

Loren rubbed her arms. “Computer—what
‟
s the temperature in here?”

Frustration filled her when the computer gave her a measurement she didn
‟
t understand.

“Can you scan me, computer, and tell me what my temperature is?”

“Affirmative. Scanning. Fifty four degrees telsa.”

“What
‟
s the temperature of the ship?”

“Varying.”

“This level, then.”

Twenty three degrees telsa.”

“No wonder I
‟
m freezing to death,” Karen muttered under her breath.

“Can you bring the heat up on this level to thirty?”

“Affirmative. I calculate that this will consume 2% of the fuel within one quadrant.”

“I guess lizard-man was saving on the light bill,” Karen said.

92

“Acknowledged,” Loren responded. “Bring it up for now.”

“Engine consumption at 20%.”

“Oh my fucking god!” Loren exclaimed. “I forgot I left the engines at full! Computer, can we stay where we are if the engines are shut down?”

“Negative. Five degree by one hundred eighteen degree drift anticipated.”

“Just take the engines down low enough to compensate for the drift.”

“What did it mean by that?” Karen asked uneasily.

“I don
‟
t really know except moving—and I
‟
d rather stay put until we have something settled…and that
‟
s what Kael said to do.”

They reviewed every map the computer produced showing the last six stops and then kept going until Loren finally decided it was an exercise in futility. It seemed to her the trader must have stopped at every single planet that had any higher life forms and the worst of it was, she didn
‟
t know if all of them did. He could
‟
ve stopped at any number of places just to pick up food and/or water, or to pick up „things
‟
like he had her and the other women. They might discover this particular ship was very unwelcome in a lot of places. “I think we
‟
ve pretty well proven that we aren
‟
t going to figure out where anybody
‟
s home is,” Loren said tiredly.

In spite of the despair that thought produced, Loren was so exhausted from the emotional upheaval of their escape that she finally curled up in a ball in the chair and dozed off. The hand that settled on her shoulder woke her with a terrified jolt. She
‟
d already sucked in a sharp breath to scream when her mind finally assimilated that it was Kael leaning over her. She leapt at him, curling her arms tightly around his neck.

Instead of trying to pry her lose, he gathered her against his chest. “We find place rest,” he murmured, striding through the control room toward the lift.

Relieved, Loren relaxed fractionally and snuggled closer. The chill as soon as they left the control deck began to invade her. She was shivering by the time the lift stopped and Kael got off and far more alert than she wanted to be. She kept her eyes clenched tightly together, though, determined to retreat into sleep again.

She felt a moment of panic when Kael settled her on a surprisingly soft surface and pealed her arms loose, but he climbed onto the bed beside her and pulled her against the solid warmth of his body again. The bed felt icy, but Kael was generating enough heat that it began to warm very quickly. The moment she reached a level of comfort that allowed for it, she dropped into darkness again.